Bullet found in man’s ashes saves another from prison

Source: Times of India dated 20.12.2018

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:
A bullet killed a man, but recovery of a bullet from the ashes after cremation of the deceased saved another from serving a life term in prison. The Supreme Court acquitted one Wasif Haider of murder charge after finding glaring discrepancies in the police story about the bullet. The police chargesheet against Haider had relied on the postmortem report which said there were two bullet wounds on the deceased’s body, one caused by entry of the bullet and the other by its exit.

However, when the body was cremated, a bullet was recovered from the ashes, casting serious doubt on the police theory. A bench of Justices N V Ramana and Mohan M Shantanagoudar said, “It is surprising that the postmortem report describes that there were two wounds in the body of the deceased, one being the entry and the other being the exit wound. Allegedly, a bullet was recovered from the ashes of the deceased.

“The forensic laboratory report shows that this bullet was charred and blistered. This recovery... is irreconcilable with the postmortem report which states an exit wound, implying that the bullet had left the body. The aforesaid fact raises a suspicion on both the postmortem report and the forensic laboratory report as they are incompatible with each other.”

The SC said the bullet that was recovered from the ashes could not be proved to have been fired from the pistol allegedly recovered from Haider. “Even the recovery of the pistol is doubtful. While prosecution case reveals that one .38 bore Colt pistol was recovered from the possession of Haider, evidence of police officer Rajendra Dhar Dwivedi reveals that a .32 bore Colt pistol was recovered pursuant to his arrest. The police also contradicted itself by claiming that two pistols of .38 bore were recovered from Haider,” said Justice Ramana.

The trial court had convicted Haider of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. But Allahabad High Court acquitted him, which was challenged in the SC by the state government.